The UNC School of Government held a workshop in Chapel Hill to discuss ways for local fire departments to recruit a more diverse work force. OK, fine. It’s good business practice to cast a broad recruiting net and to seek out as many qualified candidates as you can find. What concerns me is that the push to win a politically correct merit badge — particularly when it comes to hiring women as firefighters — puts a premium on gender and/or ethnicity rather than qualifications and skills. From the story:
A diverse family makes a department stronger and more responsive, the chiefs said.
“We’re in the ‘worst day of your life business’ and we go out to help people,” Jones said. “If among those faces … some face in that team of firefighters that have come to help them is someone they can relate directly to by culture, by race, by gender, whatever it happens to be, I think that helps reduce their stress and gives them a great degree of comfort.”
Sorry folks, but I don’t care whether the firefighting team that comes to my burning home is all men, all women, all black, all Asian, all white, all Hispanic, all married, all single, or all rich. I don’t care if they have three heads. I want the most qualified people the department can find — people who are skilled at dragging hoses, clearing rooms, and all the other fire-fighting techniques that are critical to saving lives and property. I don’t need a social worker to reduce stress or give me comfort. I’ll turn to my family for that.
Bottom line: Recruit for skills, not for gender or ethnicity.
